Archive for August, 2010

Juan Pierre took a plunking from Mitch Talbot yesterday, bringing his season total to 18, which puts him in the lead for the American League most plunkable player award. Prior to joining the White Sox this season, Pierre had never been hit by more than 10 pitches in a season.

Randy Wolf hit Jonny Gomes on a non-full moon date, perhaps to throw off recent rumors that he may be a werewolf. Wolf has hit a batter in 3 consecutive starts. Gomes now has 51 career plunks, and has now been hit twice by Wolf.

Aramis Ramirez got hit for the 33rd time at Wrigley Field, two short of Ernie Banks park total of 35, which I believe to be the record.

There were 15 Major League Baseball games played yesterday, but people only got hit by a pitch in one of them. That can only mean that 28 of the 30 Major League teams weren’t really trying, and that’s just inexcusable.

But the Brewers and Pirates were trying yesterday – you can tell because they got hit by some pitches. And they bothered to hit each other with pitches. Nothing says you care about the game more than an HBP, and nobody has cared more this season than Rickie Weeks, who now has 23 plunks on the season. Weeks needs to get hit 3 times to claim the Brewers single season record, and he has 32 games left this year to do it. Pirates starter Charlie Morton threw Weeks’ plunk, which was the 11th he’s taken from a starting pitcher – one less than his relief pitcher HBPs this year. That was the 6th time this year he’s been hit on the first pitch of a plate appearance, leading the league in 1st pitch HBPs, but he’s been hit 7 times on the 3rd pitch of a plate appearance. Weeks has now been hit 85 times in his career, just 10 behind Geoff Jenkins for the title of most plunked Brewer ever. He scored a run after reaching on the HBP, making that only the 4th time this year his plunk has gotten him on base to score a run.

Prince Fielder also got hit by a pitch yesterday, making that the 3rd game this season in which both Weeks and Fielder got hit by a pitch. But, they haven’t been hit by the same pitcher in a game this season, and Daniel McCutchen hit Fielder yesterday. Fielder is up to 21 HBPs this season, 2nd in the majors behind only teammate Rickie Weeks. That one put the Pirates into a tie with the Cubs for the most plunkings of the Brewers this year, at 13. That’s only the 8th time in the past 25 years that a team has been hit 13 times by two different teams, but the 2008 Yankees got hit 13 times by 3 different teams (but… that’s what they get for playing for the Yankees).

The Brewers did strike back though, with Zach Braddock throwing his first career HBP at Lastings Milledge. That puts the season series plunk total at 13 for the Brewers and 6 for the Pirates, but the all time Pirates-Brewers totals show the Brewers being hit 83 times and the Pirates with 105 batters plunked.

HBPs of note: August 28, 2010
Jose Guillen was hit for the first time since joining the San Francisco Giants yesterday, which means he has now been hit by a pitch while playing for 10 different teams. He’s been hit 26 times for the Royals, 26 times for the Nationals, 23 times for the Rays, 19 times for the Mariners, 15 times for the Angels, 14 times for the Pirates, 10 times for the Reds, 5 times for the A’s, twice for the Diamondbacks and once for the Giants. Only one other player has been hit by a pitch for 10 different teams is Royce Clayton, who was hit for the Giants (11), Rangers (8), Cardinals (6), White Sox (6), Rockies (4), Nationals (4), Brewers (3), Reds (1), Blue Jays (1) and Diamondbacks (1). Guillen’s 141 career plunks put him up to 24th place on the all time list, tied with Art Fletcher and David Eckstein.

Aaron Rowand also got hit for the Giants yesterday, giving him a career total of 117 HBPs. That puts him in sole possession of 44th place on the all time HBP list. He’s now been hit 20 times at AT&T park, and is the third player to get hit 20 times at the Giants current home.

Jeff Weaver hit Melvin Mora with a pitch, which was the 3rd time in two innings that the Dodgers hit the Rockies yesterday, but it was also the 200th plunk in the history of Rockies-Dodgers games. Mora has now been hit by 115 pitches, which ties him with Sherm Lollar and Jimmie Dykes on the all time HBP list at 47th place. Weaver has now hit 124 batters, and that’s the 2nd plunk this season where both the batter and pitcher were over 100 career plunks.

Corey Hart’s plunking by Zach Duke was the 11th time the Pirates have hit the Brewers this year, but that’s still 2 behind the Cubs plunkings of the Brewers for the league lead in plunks for a single matchup. The Red Sox have hit the Yankees 10 times.

Jason Kendall got his 254th career plunk yesterday, in the 6th inning against Justin Germano. That’s the 3rd time he’s been hit on August 27th, and all three have been thrown by pitchers whose first name starts with J. He has now been hit 6 times by the Indians, and 32 times by teams in Ohio in general – 2nd only to California teams, who have hit him 35 times. That was his 6th plunk in the 6th inning on a Friday, 28th plunk overall in the 6th inning. The Indians are now tied for 2nd among AL teams in plunking Kendall, behind the Rangers who have hit him 8 times. However, that was only Kendall’s 6th plunk this season, which is not the kind of pace he needs to be working at if he expects to reach 288 career HBPs and the all time record.

Jon Lester hit Carlos Pena for the 2nd time in his career. That’s 54 career plunks for Pena, and 28 for Lester. That was also Pena’s 20th career plunk at Tropicana Field, which is 2nd in park history to Jonny Gomes (26).

Mark Teixeira got hit by a pitch, giving the Yankees a league leading 14 HBPs on Fridays this year. That’s 25% of their season total.

Ryan Ludwick got a clutch plunk in the bottom of the 9th inning for the Padres, loading the bases with his team down by 1 run. Brad Lidge subsequently balked in the runner from third, tying the game. However, the Padres went on to lose in extra innings, despite the clutch HBP.

Rickie Weeks got hit by two more pitches yesterday – both by Carlos Monasterios. Weeks now has 9 career plunks thrown by pitchers named Carlos, and that is the all time record for HBPs by pitchers named Carlos. Carlos Zambrano and Marmol have hit him 3 times each, Carlos Silva once, and Monasterios now has two. Weeks gets hit about once every 32.5 plate appearances overall, but when the pitcher is named Carlos he can expect a plunk every 7.6 plate appearances. Weeks is up to 22 HBPs this season, leading the majors and 3 short of Fernando Vina’s single season record for Brewers HBPs. Weeks is up to 84 career plunks, 11 behind Geoff Jenkin’s franchise record.

David Eckstein got plunked for the Padres yesterday, bringing his career total to 141. That ties him with Art Fletcher for 24th on the all time list. That was also his 13th plunk at Petco Park, tying him with Khalil Green for 2nd on the park HBP list, 6 behind Kevin Kouzmanoff for the park record.

Matt Holiday registered a game-tying RBI plunk in the top of the 9th inning of the Cardinals/Nationals game, but his team eventually lost in extra innings.

Derek Jeter got hit by a pitch for the 149th time last night, leaving him just one plunk short of becoming the 21st player in baseball history to get hit by 150 pitches. Jeter has now moved ahead of Brady Anderson’s 148 plunks with the Orioles on the list of most career HBPs for a single team. Only Craig Biggio, Hughie Jennings, Jason Kendall and Tommy Tucker have been hit more for one team than Jeter has been hit for the Yankees.

Randy Wolf hit Rod Barajas with a pitch last night, making that the 21st time he’s hit someone within one night of the date of a full moon. That ties him with Randy Johnson for the most plunks thrown near a full moon in the last 25 years. Also, Monday was the 25th anniversary of the release of the important werewolf documentary Teen Wolf. Possibly just a coincidence.

Chone Figgins took a rare HBP yesterday, on a Daniel Bard slider, increasing his rate of getting hit from once every 659 plate appearances to once every 578 plate appearances. That’s slightly less often than Jamie Moyer has been hit by pitches, on a per plate appearance basis.

Brandon Wood got his 2nd HBP of the season yesterday, and both have been thrown by Andy Sonnanstine.

Rick Ankiel got his 10th career HBP yesterday, and that makes him the first player since Steve Carlton to have 10 career HBP as well as 10 hit batters as a pitcher. If Ankiel can get hit 3 more times, he’ll be the first player since Babe Ruth with over 10 HBPs as a batter and a pitcher, but with more HBPs batting than pitching.

Jason Michaels got his 20th career HBP yesterday, Adam Jones got his 25th (and 10th of the season), and Alex Rios got his 30th. Jeremy Guthrie threw his 35th – and then his 36th.

Brett Wallace took a plunk in the 16th inning of the Phillies/Astros game after a plate appearance featuring 4 throws to first base and two foul balls with the runner going. That’s the most total throws to first and fouls with the runner going this season in an HBP plate appearance. No one has been hit after more than 2 foul balls with the runner going, although Prince Fielder and Omar Vizquel both got hit after the pitcher threw to first base 5 times.

Marlon Byrd got his 17th HBP of the season last night, thanks to the pitch throwing of Livan Hernandez. Hernandez racked up his 69th and 70th career hit batter, thanks to the not-getting-out-of-the-way of Byrd and Xavier Nady. Hernandez had not hit anyone so far this season, and yesterday’s plunks made him the 400th pitcher of 2010 to hit at least one batter.

Also, Hernandez had been in a tie with Pedro Ramos for the most plunks ever thrown by a Cuban since May 26, 2009 when Hernandez last hit a batter. Those two plunks yesterday give him the all time Cuban record, making him the first Cuban to hit 70 major league batters. Ramos’ record of 68 has stood since 1969 and withstood close calls from Orlando Hernandez (67 hit batters) and Rolando Arrojo (67 hit batters).

Jason Bartlett also got hit by a pitch yesterday, and that was the 837th plunk in baseball history to hit a batter named Jason.

Carlos Pena was on the receiving end of the 80th plunk ever recorded in an A’s-Rays game yesterday, giving him a career total of 53 HBPs and a Rays record total of 37. He’s now 2 HBPs ahead of the Johnny Gomes and 6 ahead of Carl Crawford in the Rays record book. Dallas Braden threw that one, making it 10 hit batters for his career.

Felix Doubront of the Red Sox had never hit anyone before, but he plunked Jose Molina of the Blue Jays yesterday, making him the 399th pitcher to hit a batter this season. He’s also the 80th Venezuelan born pitcher ever to hit a batter in the majors. That was also the 596 known plunk by a batter named Jose.

It was a pretty disappointing effort by the league’s batters yesterday, as only 3 of them got hit by pitches. Josh Wilson got the 7900th HBP ever recorded by a batter born in Pennsylvania, from Chad Gaudin who made it also the 1400th plunk ever thrown by a pitcher from Louisiana.

The Rockies got hit by a pitch in both the 9th and 10th inning against the Diamondbacks, but still managed to lose the game. Teams that get hit twice after the beginning of the 9th inning now have 2 wins and 3 loses this year. One of those was Clint Barmes’ 35th career plunk, making him the 6th Rocky ever to reach that total.